I always end up feeling inspired to write a song after HMHS episodes (its ok, it quickly passes afterwards) - this was no exception! I enjoyed the songs and the banter.

The first song was especially brilliant, with the little "homage" to the buggles in there at the end.

The middle one was very strange - the music was good, but why choose to sing in Dutch (i guess if the band is dutch, that makes sense, but I thought this was english-speaking musicians expressing their artistic flair) - bizarre but good!

The last one was enjoyable, especially the minor section which took off in a similar way to the bonnie Tyler hit "I need a hero" - well done!

Brother Luke - Everything To Me - Holy poop! A great tune with great performances and production. Love what you did with the vocals. There was a hint of cut-'n-paste'ism with the two breaks before the chorus as things drop down and crescendo before the chorus. Otherwise, very, very coolSpots - Tegen De Wind (recorded by Jerome Fygee) Another awesome tune. Who cares what language it was, it was catchy and had me hooked - just can't comment on the lyrics. I liked it!

David Cooper - Sweet Lady Luna Always great to hear a David Cooper tune. I loved the accoustic guitar play there - wish I could play guitar so convincingly. Fantastic job David.

I'm constantly listening to new stuff and getting inspired: "that'd be a great style to do something in..." or "oooo, that's a cool technique, I've gotta figure out what happened there..." or "what a fantastic X ..." you get the picture. The problem for me is finding the time to do it.

Don't think I'll (ever) be able to swing the RPM - I considered it, but considering what I've hardly "finished" 10 songs (for myself) in the last 10 years, I'd be freakin' crazy to think I'd be able to do that in a month - plus we've got our spring break starting the last week of the month which would make my February effectively 3 weeks...

Polly wrote:The number one rule of homerecording is…

LIMIT YOUR OPTIONS LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

The more options you have, the more you’ll prevaricate over the actual creative process.

Sorry Polly, had to change out your huge pink cap letters in the quote... Yes, I agree ... in some circumstances.

I think it all really depends on the person, how they work, what their motivation for making music is, what kind of music they're after and where they are in their creative process on not only their song, but in their "career".

For me, if I'm coming up with the bones of a song - including lyrics and all that, then I'll limit myself to just the ... bare bones. piano, voice and perhaps a drum groove. Once I get into arranging, and recording then things open up. I find that having options open helps in a couple of different manners:

they can garner those "happy mistakes": finding something that you never would have thought of that seems to catch or fit.

looking for a new way of doing X - for example, I want the bass to stand out in my mix, I could double it with something else, I could EQ it differently ... there's a whole bunch of different "classic" ways of doing it if I limit myself, but what if I try out an exciter, or distortion, or perhaps a pitch shifter, or maybe a ring modulator... things that "professionals" wouldn't immediately tell you to do.

Sure, having a bunch of "toys" to play with can cut into the songwriting process, but I don't see any problem with that given what I'm assuming the main motivation for songwriting is with everyone here: personal pleasure. For sure, when money and time is on the line, then cutting back on noodling with options becomes more important.

But, if we're all doing this for fun and trying to learn, I don't see why exploring options is necessarily a bad thing. How else are we going to learn our existing gear and discover possibilities available to us with other new toys?

Keep 'em coming Dave and Tony!

Cheers, D

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"no, I didn't get any comments about my last name when I was little, why do you ask?"

Hey Everyone! Boy there were a landslide of posts on Sunday and Monday. Warms the heart!

Welcome Maggie. Go back and listen to some previous shows. As stated, not all shows are quite this pro.

You can look forward to more of Tony's patented "Dictaphone sound" on show 208 next Friday. It feels weird to have a show in the can but hold it back. In the long run though, I think it will be a lot easier to sustain the show by recording them once a month. I will be excited about doing it rather than burnt out.

Apparently I have burnt everyone out with my talk of plugins. lol. I am all about trying to limit my options but I have to have something to limit them to. If I hadn't done some exploring, I might not have found the MinimogueVA which is now my go-to synth. I want to finish exploring this Behringer collection of plugins and then do some songs from that.

This company called Tweakbench makes some synths called Toad and Peach. They do old school Nintendo sounds...get it? Toad, Peach... characters from Nintendo games for those who might not be gamey. For RPM I hope to do a song using those two as my limitation.

To me, it is really fun to explore and find new free synths and stuff. That is part of the enjoyment, as Dave Chick said. But when I get down to the business of writing songs, the limitation needs to come and I need to pick something and go with it.

3 very well-done songs this week. The level of all-round "polish" is impressive-- it does raise the bar a bit. Good stuff.

The RPM challenge thingy sounds great but I won't be doing it this year as work and family stuff are taking up all of my time. I have an album's worth of songs almost finished but I can't get a stretch of time together to finish it off. I will get a half-hour of downtime here, an hour there, but I find it really hard to work in such short bursts. Once I start working on music stuff, I'll generally want to stay at it for 12 hours, but that is not an option now. Anyone got any hints on how to re-orient myself?

Welcome, Maggie-- I'm going to go out on a limb and assume from the name that you might be a woman-- if so, double-yay! Always nice to see more of us doing/ talking about home recording.

I almost always write the music before the words-- don't know why; I think the music comes easier. Sometimes I don't put words to it for a year or more. Occasionally it'll end up instrumental. (The Smiths did a lot of their stuff similarly-- Johnny Marr would do the music for the whole song and drop a tape of it through Mozzer's letterbox and he, Moz, would add vocal melody and lyrics. This process is obviously more difficult if you have to be both Marr and Moz.)

Yes, I can confirm that Maggie is a woman. A very attractive red-head at that! lol. Right Maggie?

I think a lot of us have the same time constraints you do and it is really hard to work that way. I have found you just have to be all the more determined and organized. Scheduling time with yourself to write and record has always worked well for me. As I have mentioned on the show, I have a Fine Arts Center in my community with practice rooms. I will take 2 hours of vacation time and zip over there in the afternoon sometimes. That is really great for me. You are in a room with no other purpose than to make music. Others from the forum have rented hotel rooms and holed themselves up for a weekend to record. You deserve the time, right?

That is very interesting that you do the music first. I may need to just try that. I guess I have 10 songs to write in Feb. That may be one of them. I can totally see the Smiths doing that. Johnny Marr is so prolific, he probably just chucks the songs out. I am kind of surprised Marr has never put out a solo album. Or has he?

chckn8r wrote: Sure, having a bunch of "toys" to play with can cut into the songwriting process, but I don't see any problem with that given what I'm assuming the main motivation for songwriting is with everyone here: personal pleasure. For sure, when money and time is on the line, then cutting back on noodling with options becomes more important.

Agreed. It was something I came across in a freebie advice sheet. Maybe its best understood as a cautionary note rather than a 'rule'. For example...

" I might not have found the MinimogueVA which is now my go-to synth"

I thought I thought I recognised the name. I've got this on Mixcraft as a standard (I assume) And I'm gonna have a good play with it right now!

criddlerus wrote:I just find that hard to do. My melodies tend to drive the chord changes.

I guess I should qualify that though - it's not necessarily a linear process: chords -> melody -> lyrics -> finshed song. I'll typically start with a groove / chord progression and try out melodic lines.
Sometimes, the melody will want to go a different place than where the chords are going, so I modify the chords / rhythm to suit.
It's essentially iterative, but usually starts with chords.

0 x

"no, I didn't get any comments about my last name when I was little, why do you ask?"

chckn8r wrote:I'll typically start with a groove / chord progression and try out melodic lines.
Sometimes, the melody will want to go a different place than where the chords are going, so I modify the chords / rhythm to suit.

I use a the same or similar approach.
some riff or rhythm will catch my ear and I'll start building off of it.
sometimes it gives me a vocal line, sometimes I just hunt for the next change, but usually the music and vocals and lyrics develop together after the initial 'spark' happens.
I get the occasional wildfire after the spark, but usually it's just a slow burn.

Hey Tony and Dave! Welcome back. Very glad to see episodes waiting for me in iTunes.

Thoughts on the episode:

Amplug: I've got two of them, the AC30 and the "Metal" version. Don't use them much, but they are great for when I'm on the road.
Everything to me: Pro. Lots of interesting things to listen to, and a good basic song as well. Good piano and drums.
Tegen de wind: Great recording and the vocals were very easy to listen to.
Obviously I'm way late for the RPM Challenge, but I can dream.
Sweet Lady Luna: Nice clean guitars. I like the composition and a good choice to go up-tempo.